Aloha HVCB Ohana,

Everyone is relieved to see Hawaii’s climate back to normal following the extended bad weather that caused flooding, road closures, sewage spills and beach closures.

It’s been a challenging time and our hearts go out to those families personally touched by the tragic events of these unusual conditions.

While there’s no question our visitors would have preferred sunny skies to pouring rain, many experienced what we have often said…that there’s a lot more to do in Hawaii beyond the beach.

Our hats go off to the hotels, airlines, and activities and attractions operators who performed wonderfully for our guests in very trying situations. It seems the absence of sunshine was amply filled by an abundance of aloha.

Kauai felt the worst of the storm that received national attention with the breaching of Ka Loko reservoir. The storm spread its punch to Oahu and media attention shifted from weeks of record rainfall to the Ala Wai sewage spill that closed Waikiki Beach.

Throughout this crisis, HVCB kept our future visitors informed of the situation through our call center and web site. In addition we maintained a continual dialog with the Hawaii Tourism Authority, the Governor’s Tourism Liaison, wholesalers, travel agents, and travel and consumer news media.

The key question: At what point do we in marketing the destination feel comfortable in telling the world that the bad weather had passed and our beaches are safe? The well being of our visitors is of paramount concern and any premature announcement could have damaged Hawaii’s integrity.

In mid-April, following several days of extended sunshine, and all major beaches declared open by the State Department of Health, HVCB began its program of communicating to the public that Hawaii had returned to normal.

As we look back on this experience, it’s clear that activities and attractions operators lost business, especially on Kauai and Oahu. Fortunately, the destination did not experience widespread cancellations of airline and hotel bookings. In fact, when adjusted for Spring Break, March showed strong results and preliminary figures indicate April arrivals could be a record for the month.

The world has been quick to forgive us nature’s stormy weather, but not so the shortcomings of wastewater systems that are susceptible to polluting our pristine waters. Business, government, community and environmental interests must join together to remediate these weaknesses in due haste, or risk greater consequences if this scenario were to be repeated.


Mahalo,

John Monahan
President/CEO